George Washington to Governor George Clinton of New Jersey Valley Forge, February 16, 1778 "... the present dreadful situation of the army for want of provisions and the miserable prospects before us ... For some days past, there has been little less than a famine in camp. A part of the army has been a week without any kind of flesh, and the rest for three or four days. Naked and starving as they are, we cannot enough admire the incomparable patience and fidelity of the soldiery, that they have not been ere this excited by their sufferings, to a general mutiny or dispersion. Strong symptoms, however, of discontent have appeared in particular instances, and nothing but the most active efforts every where can long avert so shocking a catastrophe."